- Hello, everyone.
I am Chase here at Rocky Mountain ATV MC.
And today, we are sharing with you our top five
tips to stay warm during cold weather adventure riding.
All right, so today we want to share with you
our top five tips to help you stay warm
if you're dual sport adventure riding in cold weather.
Now, for us at Rocky Mountain, we try to plan
our trips during the warmer times of the year,
but we've definitely had our fair share
of adventure rides in some pretty cold weather.
And I'll tell you from first hand experience
that if you are not prepared for it,
it honestly becomes more about survival
than just having fun on your motorcycle at that point.
You also gotta keep in mind that on adventure rides,
especially for us here in Utah per se,
you know you're gonna have big climbs
and big drops in elevation, and you can see
big changes, big drops in the temperature.
And also just depending on the time of the year,
it could be really cold in the morning time,
maybe warm up in the afternoon,
but then as soon as that sun goes down in the evening time,
the temperatures can drop quite a bit.
So you definitely want to be prepared.
So that's what we're gonna do is give you
our tips to help you stay warm.
All right, so tip number one: it's gonna be
layering correctly.
This is probably the most important part
when it comes to staying warm on adventure rides.
Now, I have a video where I talk about this
in full detail, but today I'm gonna keep it
short and sweet.
So you've got three layers.
You're gonna have your base layer, your mid-layer,
and then your outer layer.
So your base layer is gonna be your next of skin piece.
It's gonna fit a little bit more snug,
and the purpose of the base layer
is to wick away moisture and keep you dry.
So typically, these are gonna be made
from polyester or nylon or really high quality merino wool.
Now merino wool, I get asked about that sometimes.
How is that a good base layer?
Well, merino wool has two really good properties
that I love so much about it.
The first is that it wicks moisture well,
and also it keeps you warm even when it's wet.
And what's great about it is it's antimicrobial naturally
so it helps resist odor even if you wear it
for one or two days at a time.
It does a really good job.
So that's gonna be your base layer.
Wick away moisture.
After that, you're gonna have your mid-layer.
Now mid-layer's gonna be a little bit more loose fitting.
You don't need it to be super tight.
And it's job is to trap heat, and keep you warm inside.
Now with mid-layers, typically you could see these
made out of down.
Some are gonna be maybe fleece-lined or wool.
And you just want to make sure you have a
good quality mid-layer, and that's gonna help you out
and keep heat trapped inside.
Once you have your mid-layer taken care of,
now you're gonna have your outer shell.
Now keep in mind, a lot of adventure jackets
already have a thermal liner built in
so that would take the place of your mid-layer.
So if your jacket already has one of those,
you don't need to stress too much about
having a mid-layer.
So just like with this ARC Battle Born jacket,
it has a zip-in thermal liner
so that would take its place.
But you want to have a good outer shell,
one that's going to block the wind,
and one that's going to be one hundred percent water proof.
So if you do get caught in some rain,
you're gonna stay dry.
If it's cold and windy, that's gonna block the wind
and help you out as well.
So that's gonna be my first tip
is you wanna make sure, absolutely crucial,
that you layer correctly.
All right, so tip number two: it's gonna be heated gear.
So if you're daring enough to ride
in those really cold temperatures
and you want to make sure
that you stay warm and comfortable,
I'm gonna say that heated gear is a must have.
Now, we have heated gear from several different brands
to choose from.
And we're gonna have you covered from head to toe.
We have your jacket liners, your pant liners.
We have socks; we even have soles for your boots.
And also your gloves as well.
Now when it comes to heated gear,
you're gonna have a couple different options to choose from.
You're gonna have some sets like we have here
with this First Gear set-up that's gonna run
off your motorcycle's battery.
And it's gonna have a heat controller
that you're gonna use to control the heat
once you have everything set up.
You just want to keep in mind, you want to make sure
that your stator has enough output to run
this heated gear.
You definitely don't want to get caught
with a dead battery.
But First Gear, we actually have a great video
that shows you the whole setup and how to get
everything rocking and rolling.
The other option is we have heated gear
that is actually ran by rechargeable batteries
that are going to last about two hours.
You can pick up extra batteries if you want to
to make sure you're not gonna run out.
But what's nice about the gear that has
rechargeable batteries is it's a way to keep you warm
when you're off the bike.
So if you're done riding for the day,
you're gonna set up camp or make a fire
or maybe just get to your hotel room,
it's gonna allow you stay warm when you are off the bike.
So you're gonna have those two different options.
Now when it comes to heated gear,
it can be expensive if you're trying
to get everything all at once.
So if you want to start out small
and work your way up, the first piece of gear
that I would highly recommend is either going to be
a jacket or a vest.
Keeping your core warm is going to help
to keep the rest of your body warm as well.
So for us on our adventure rides,
if we're packing light but we're still
anticipating some cooler weather,
we'll just take a jacket or a vest with us.
What's nice about these you can see,
they pack up nice and small.
They're light weight so they're easy to take with you.
But that's gonna be my second tip is heated gear.
All right, so tip number three:
it's gonna be all about keeping your paws warm.
And one of our must have accessories for
cold weather riding here at Rocky Mountain
is going to be grip heaters.
These are inexpensive; they're easy to install.
And once you have them, you will wonder
how you ever got along without.
I am not a fan, pet peeve of mine,
I do not like cold fingers.
That is why my bike, along with all the other
adventure bikes here at Rocky Mountain,
we all run the Tusk Grip Heater Kit.
Like I said earlier, very easy to install.
And what's nice about these is you have
two different settings, a low and a high.
And you have a switch to control that.
Now, what we have found at Rocky Mountain
is that the low setting works really well
for your thinner gloves.
Even all the way down to your dirt glove.
So if you're wearing that kind of glove
and it's not too cold outside but you want some heat,
that low setting works really well.
And then you want to flip it up to high,
that's going to be for really your thicker,
cold weather adventure gloves,
maybe gloves that have insulation.
The high setting works really well.
Now, when you couple those grip heaters
with a good glove and some handguards
to block the wind, you're gonna do a
really good job of keeping your hands warm.
So we all run full wrap around handguards
here at Rocky Mountain.
This is our Tusk D-Flex Pro, one of our best selling,
most popular handguards.
But for those really cold, those extreme conditions
when we want to block as much wind as possible,
'cause really blocking wind, you'd be surprised
how much warmth it's gonna add to your hands.
We will always take with us these Bushwackers
from Giant Loop.
So you can see they're flat, they're easy to pack up,
they're very light weight, but they actually
wrap around your entire handguard.
And they do an incredible job of blocking wind.
So we always take these with us on our adventure rides
to make sure we can block the wind if we need to.
So that's gonna be my third tip is make sure
you keep your hands nice and warm.
And nothing's going to be better than a set of grip heaters.
All right, so tip number four: it's gonna be a balaclava.
For me, lifesaver.
Whenever I ride in cold weather,
I always seem to get cold air up in my helmet.
Nothing I can really do about it.
No matter how much I pull up my jacket collar,
I always get cold air in there,
and sometimes it gives me a headache
almost like I have a brain freeze.
So I learned the hard way that the best way
to combat that is just to have a balaclava with you.
Now we have a lot of these to choose from.
For us at Rocky Mountain, most of us just
take this ARC balaclava.
It' very thin and very light weight.
You can see, very easy just to fold up.
We just put it in our coat pocket,
so it's very easy to get access to
and put it on when we need it.
If you do want to go with the thicker option,
we have those as well.
This is the Klim Arctic.
What's great about this, you can see,
a lot of added length to the bottom.
It's fleece lined so it's gonna add a little bit
of warmth and very comfortable.
And one thing that riders struggle with
when it comes to cold weather is fogging on their shield.
So you can see with this Arctic from Klim,
it actually has a breath box.
So as you breathe into it, it will actually
push your breath down to help prevent
your shield from fogging up.
But keep in mind, cold weather, fog,
they go hand in hand.
So another great little tip you can do
is just pick up some anti-fog spray
and just apply that to your lens
before you go out and ride.
Make sure to have a balaclava whether it's a thin one
like this ARC or a thicker one like from Klim.
That is going to really help you out.
All right, so for my fifth and my final tip:
it's gonna be having an insulated bottle.
These are awesome 'cause you're gonna be able
to put your hot chocolate in here, your hot coffee.
It's gonna give you something hot
to sip on throughout the day.
But also, during the summertime,
we take these with us as well because
we stop at a gas station, we put ice in there,
we put our drinks in them.
And we have a nice, cold drink to have
throughout the day as well.
If you are looking for an insulated bottle
with an awesome value, this is our Rocky Mountain
insulated bottle.
Holds 36 ounces, really good price point.
But also remember, if you're gonna be camping
on your ADV rides and you need a way to have hot water,
get a Jetboil.
We offer those on our website.
They are awesome.
They will give you boiling water in just a couple minutes.
And that's gonna allow you to have a nice, hot drink
throughout the day.
And that's my fifth and final tip is have
an insulated bottle.
Now, I do have one bonus tip for you,
and that is gonna be extra lighting for your motorcycle.
In the winter months, the days are gonna be shorter
so you might be spending more time riding at night.
If that is the situation, it never hurts
to have more lighting.
This is the Baja Design Squadron Pro.
It's one of our LED lights that we use
on a lot of our adventure rides,
our adventure bikes at Rocky Mountain.
Very small but very bright and very low amp draw
from your battery.
So if you do need extra lighting,
we have a lot of great options to choose from.
But that's my bonus tip is put some extra lights
on your bike.
All right, so thanks for checking out
our top five tips to help you stay warm and cozy
on your dual sport adventure rides.
Now, I'm sure you guys have a lot of great tips,
so make sure to please share those with us.
Comment below what do you guys like to do
to stay warm and comfortable on your dual sport
adventure rides.
And remember, everything that I talked about today
you can find on our website.
You can click on the link
or head over to our website at RockyMountainATVMC.com.
Orders over $75 ship free.
And, guys, make sure to subscribe to us on YouTube.
We have a lot of great gear guides, how-to videos,
product reviews.
And also on all our dual sport adventure rides
that we do here at Rocky Mountain,
we document those trips.
And we upload those.
So we share our trips with you, our experiences.
And we also even upload our route
so you can do the same rides.
I'm Chase here at Rocky Mountain.
We'll see you on the trails.